COPYRIGHT NOTICE
----------------
For all files that are not marked differently:

Copyright Gerlof Langeveld 2007-2024 and licensed under the GPL v2 (or any later version).


DEPENDENCIES
------------

Install the following packages to be able to build atop (package name
can be different depending on the Linux distro):

* zlib-devel    or libz-dev or zlib1g-dev
* ncurses-devel or libncurses5-dev/libncursesw5-dev
* glib2-devel   or libglib2.0-dev


Install the following packages to be able to execute atop (package name
can be different depending on the Linux distro):

* zlib    or zlib1g
* ncurses or libncurses5/libncursesw5
* glib2   or libglib2.0


INSTALLING AND USING ATOP FROM TARBALL
--------------------------------------

For interactive use, it is sufficient to install ATOP with the command
(as root):

	make install		(systemd based)

		or

	make sysvinstall	(System V init based)

For automatic logging in compressed binary format, see the
description in the manual-page.


NETWORK-RELATED COUNTERS PER PROCESS/THREAD
-------------------------------------------

The kernel module 'netatop' can be downloaded and installed separately
from www.atoptool.nl/downloadnetatop.php
This module is optional and can be used to gather network statistics
per process/thread as described in www.atoptool.nl/netatop.php

Alternatively, the BPF implementation 'netatop-bpf' can be downloaded
and installed from https://github.com/bytedance/netatop-bpf


PROCESS ACCOUNTING WITH PSACCT/ACCT PACKAGE
-------------------------------------------

Preferably, process accounting should be handled by the atopacctd daemon
which is implicitly installed when installing atop. This daemon takes
care that process accounting is only active when at least one atop
process is running. Besides, when process accounting is activated,
atopacctd takes care that the disk utilization is minimal.
See the man page of atopacctd for further details.

When the psacct or acct package is installed in parallel with the
atop package and you want to enable/start the (ps)acct service for
permanent process accounting, the atopacct.service refuses to activate
the atopacctd daemon to avoid clashes.
When the (ps)acct service is enabled, atop automatically uses the
process accounting file that is used by this package.
See also the section PROCESS ACCOUNTING in the man page of atop.


OVERVIEW OF RELATED PROGRAMS
----------------------------

When installing atop the following programs are provided:

  atop        - System and process monitor (live and from raw log)
  atopacctd   - Daemon: handles process accounting records to be used by atop
  atopgpud    - Daemon: gathers metrics from Nvidia GPUs to be used by atop
  atopsar     - System activity reports (live and from raw log)
  atopcat     - Concatenate raw log files and provide raw log information
  atophide    - Make extractions from raw logs and/or anonymize raw logs
  atopconvert - Convert raw log to newer version


SERVICE ACTIVATION AFTER INSTALLATING PACKAGE
---------------------------------------------

After the package has been installed, be sure that the related services
are activated.
To support handling of terminated processes using process accounting,
enable the atopacct service:

	systemctl enable --now atopacct

Notice that this service should not be enabled when the package
psacct or acct (depends on the Linux distribution) has been installed
and enabled. In that case atop uses the daily process accounting file
created via that package.

To support maintaining daily log files to keep track of long-term analysis
information, enable the atop service and the related timer:

	systemctl enable --now atop
	systemctl enable --now atop-rotate.timer




Gerlof Langeveld
gerlof.langeveld@atoptool.nl